AUSTIN — Gov. Greg Abbott, who has made it his mission to squeeze local governments into falling in line with his Texas vision, is targeting a city-by-city initiative to require businesses to offer paid sick leave to employees who earn it.

Express Newsletters

Get the latest news, sports and food features sent directly to your inbox.

“These policies will be crushing, especially for small businesses, by imposing a heavy-handed mandate that will cause these small businesses to have to pay even more out of their own pockets,” Abbott said when I asked him about the issue.

“I believe it will lead to many small businesses having to shut down and will cause a reduction in employment opportunities for so many Texans,” said Abbott.

But backers say 40 entities around the country — including cities, counties, states and Washington, D.C. — have mandated paid sick leave without ill effects on the business environment.

In a study of New York City’s policy by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, close to 85 percent of employers reported no effect on their business expenses overall after more than a year. Eighty-six percent expressed support for the law.

A University of Washington study of Seattle’s ordinance found that employers initially feared it would increase their labor costs by a substantial amount and cause staffing shortages. After a year, the study said, “most of these initial fears had faded,” and workers typically used much less leave than employers expected.

“It’s a false choice to say that it’s either we take care of working families, or we take care of businesses. It doesn’t have to be one or the other,” said Michelle Tremillo, executive director of the Texas Organizing Project, which is pushing to put the issue on the November ballot in San Antonio.

Tremillo said her group is on pace to get the 64,000 signatures needed to do so.

Austin this year became the first city in Texas to approve mandatory paid sick leave for employees of businesses, with a vote by its city council.

Under Austin’s ordinance — which is being challenged in court by business groups and the Texas Public Policy Foundation — employees will be able to earn an hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours they work.

If they work for companies with more than 15 employees, they will be able to earn up to 8 days. Those who work for smaller companies will be able to earn up to six when the ordinance takes effect.

“It’s up to Governor Abbott to decide that he stands with working families and voters, or that he doesn’t,” Tremillo said. “We won’t be intimidated by the threat of future legislation.”

Abbott said such ideas “are good policies for employers to adopt on their own, but I think it’s completely wrong for a government mandate to impose high-cost policies” affecting employers’ ability to manage their budgets.

It’s a familiar position for Abbott, who has long taken aim at local policies that he said were leading to Texas being “California-ized.”

Abbott signed a bill in 2015 to prevent communities from barring fracking in their areas, a win for the oil-and-gas industry after the North Texas city of Denton approved such a policy due to concerns over issues like earthquakes.

Last year, he signed into law a sanctuary cities ban that was opposed by police chiefs, including San Antonio’s William McManus. He also signed measures to trim local authority over management of trees and to curb annexation ability.

His efforts haven’t all been victories; Abbott unsuccessfully backed measures to impose new limits on how much cities and counties can increase property taxes, and to restrict transgender people’s ability to use the public restrooms that align with their gender identity.

“Governor Abbott’s weird crusade to tell Texas cities what they can and can’t do — whether on paid sick leave, bathroom bills, tree ordinances or fracking — doesn’t fly. What’s next? Telling us where we can worship, shop and when to mow the lawn?” asked Houston businessman Andrew White in a statement. “How Texas politics have changed: Democrats support local governments making their own decisions while extremist Republicans want to take this freedom away.”

Former Dallas County sheriff Lupe Valdez said in a statement, “Governor Abbott and his Tea Party Republicans are all for local control except when local communities decide to take actions to help working families.

“We've seen them use the government to push their shameful agenda that hurts the Texas brand,” she said. “Now, as a local community has tried to pick up the slack for families and provide dignity and opportunity to workers, Abbott wants to slam the door on progress. We should be passing paid sick leave across Texans, not shutting it down.”